Brothel 'bosses' hit with bribery, sex charges

By Maris Beck and Nick McKenzie

ALLEGED key members of Chinese syndicates said to control much of Melbourne's illegal brothel trade have been charged with paying tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to a local government official.

The Sunday Age can reveal four people have been charged over the past 12 days with bribery or illegal prostitution, as part of an alleged multimillion-dollar racket that is said to have spanned six years and at least 15 Melbourne suburbs.

Xue Di 'Jenny' Yan.Credit:Wayne Taylor

Among those charged is Xue Di ''Jenny'' Yan, an alleged king-pin of the illegal brothel industry.

The investigation, led by police detective sergeant Nick Goodear throughout 2010, was the biggest and most intensive operation targeting the illegal brothel sector in several years.

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Hao Yong 'Tony' Tang.Credit:Wayne Taylor

However, it focused only on Melbourne's inner and outer northern suburbs. Despite the charges and arrests, dozens of illegal brothel operators continue to run prostitution services throughout Melbourne with relative impunity.

Many of the illegal brothels are advertised in local newspapers and openly discussed online. Some allegedly linked to those charged remain open.

Today's revelations are part of an expose of criminality in Australia's sex industry produced in conjunction with the ABC's Four Corners program.

Police raids on up to a dozen illegal brothels in November 2010 netted evidence to be used in court to allege that Yan, with Anon Lu and Tony Tang, controlled several brothels in Melbourne's inner city and northern suburbs. They are accused of bribing former council officer Ken Wolfe in order to dodge inspections by police and council officials.

Anon LuCredit:Wayne Taylor

Wolfe, who was responsible for shutting down suspected illegal brothel premises by charging them with breaching planning regulations, resigned as the City of Yarra's co-ordinator of planning enforcement after his town hall office was raided last November.

He pleaded guilty in August to taking $130,000 in bribes from illegal brothel operators across Melbourne in exchange for information about inspections and raids.

Neil HancockCredit:Wayne Taylor WMT

Rumours that sex was being offered at Richmond's Club Striptease led to it being visited by police one day last year. They

found no sex on offer that day - because, they allege, the owner knew they were coming.

In a call caught on a phone tap, club owner Neil Hancock is alleged to have told a council worker: ''Mate, without that phone call I would've been f---ed.'' Over the next week, he is accused of depositing $250 into the council worker's TAB account, as part of payments that would allegedly total more than $12,000 over four years.

Hancock, 65, has now been charged with 52 offences, including bribing a public official with payments totalling $12,720 between July 25, 2006, and November 1, 2010. It is alleged sexual services were offered at his club without a licence.

Yan, 49, was charged with 35 offences including bribing a public official to the tune of $23,827.41 and working as a sex work provider without a licence. Hao Yong ''Tony'' Tang was charged with 106 offences, including making corrupt payments to a council official totalling $77,960 between October 2, 2004, and October 30, 2010, working as a sex work provider without a licence and living on the material benefits of prostitution.

Anon Lu, 50, was charged with 37 offences, including inciting a local government official to supply information about the investigations into alleged illegal brothels, making corrupt payments of $20,827.41 and working as a sex work provider without a licence.

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In Melbourne Magistrates Court last week, magistrate Mary Kay Robertson extended bail for all four accused, subject to conditions including they not attend an international point of departure or contact prosecution witnesses other than the police informant.

De Gen Zheng, 55, of Preston, has been charged, over an alleged illegal brothel in East Melbourne, with recklessly carrying on a sex work business without a licence, carrying on a sex work service without a licence and knowingly deriving a benefit from the earnings of sex work. He will appear before the Magistrates Court in December.